Over the last ten years several legislative regulations were established in Germany for the prevention of occupational skin diseases. The legislative regulation introduced as the Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances (TRGS) 530 “Hairdressing trade“ defines preventive measures for work-related skin and pulmonary diseases in hairdressers, who have the highest incidence of occupational skin diseases in Germany. The TRGS 531 “Endangerment of the skin by work in the wet environment (wet work)“ focuses on the most frequent irritant wet work which causes irritant contact dermatitis. TRGS 540 “Sensitising substances“ describes preventive measures when there is exposure to sensitising substances at the workplace. TRGS 613 regulates the exposure limit for dichromate in cement in response to positive experience in Scandinavia where contact sensitisation to dichromate has greatly decreased in recent years. A new TRGS “Dermal exposure“ will be established soon to complete the legislative framework for preventive measures in Germany.